Flathead High School’s Josie Morrison and Padmaja Vatti were paired together on the debate team last year as freshman. One year later, the two became Public Forum Class AA state champions.  

Before taking the stage to argue about international politics, Vatti and Morrison joined some of their other teammates for a pre-competition ritual.  

“Before each day, we would dance to Shakira. We would find a random corner in the school, just our little public forum team, and we would just dance to “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira,” said Morrison, who lives in Bigfork. 

“It was our version of warmups to de-stress and kind of like, get ready for the day,” Vatti said.” 

No matter how silly it seems in retrospect, no one can say the tradition didn’t work. On top of their own personal win, Flathead High School’s speech and debate team placed second overall, with a score of 157.5. They fell right behind grand champion Bozeman High School. The state tournament was hosted in Kalispell on Jan. 30-31. 

Public Forum Debate is a category in speech and debate where two students work as a team to make an argument against their competition — typically about current events, either domestic or international. Leading up to the debate, teams have to prepare both sides of an argument and strategize about how to best present it. 

They’ll choose who will speak first, usually making a defense of their own argument, while the second speaker typically plays offense.

But they won’t know what side they have to argue until it’s competition day. 

“Right before the round starts, you'll flip a coin ... so you don't really know what you're going to get before you start,” Vatti said.  

There’s no disappointment for prepared debaters, though. Vatti and Morrison said they feel the hours of research they pour into both sides of an argument leaves them ready for whatever comes their way.  

For the state tournament, their topic was “China should substantially reduce its international extraction of natural resources.” During finals, Vatti and Morrison stood in favor of that statement.  

In November they argued about Brexit, then encryption technology in December.  

Morrison said she enjoys the fast-paced, back-and-forth nature of public forum debate.  

It’s also a good opportunity to learn about complicated topics, Vatti added.  

“The thing I like most about public forum is just that it deals with current events. And the fact that it changes is really helpful, because you get to learn about a multitude of things—like domestic topics and international topics. And being educated on that stuff has been really helpful for me. It's added to school, it's added to my future career,” Vatti said.  

The girls pour hours into research for their arguments, but the art of debating takes practice too.  

Vatti said she’s been focusing on speaking more clearly during competitions. She got feedback from her coaches telling her she needed to slow down a bit, which she feels has improved a lot over the season.  

“In the years coming, I do have to work on that. Then also attacking arguments, just making it make sense to a judge. Because I often heard from my coach that I have a good response to an argument, but they don't understand it,’” Vatti said.  

For Morrison, her area of improvement was doing enough personal research to feel prepared. She said as a freshman, she soaked up a lot of topic knowledge from the team rather than doing it herself, which hindered her ability to respond to arguments in debate.  

The duo said they were paired together last year. With the backing of their team captains, everyone thought Vatti and Morrison would be a good team based on their similar skill level and because they are in the same grade.  

It made them more competitive. 

“Padmaja was very good in her role as a second speaker, which is more like off-the-cuff, and then I was better in the first speaker role, which is kind of like a mix ... I think because our skills contrasted, but also kind of like meshed together, that was why we were partners,” Morrison said.  

The two got interested in speech and debate in middle school. Vatti said she was in eighth grade when her history teacher made their final project a mock public forum debate. There were a variety of teams and topics, with Vatti and her partner preparing cases for a debate on book banning.  

“It was a very watered-down version of an actual public forum debate, but it really interested me. And then going into high school, my brother already did speech and debate, so I also wanted to join,” Vatti said.  

Morrison said she thought about joining after she got good at arguing with her parents.  

“My mom was like, ‘You need to be in debate.’ ... But also in eighth grade, we did this debate in my English class at Bigfork with Mrs. Appleby. She was like, ‘We're going to do a debate, and you're going to have to argue why a dog is the most civilized character in this book,’’” Morrison recalled. “And I was like, ‘What? Like, how am I supposed to argue that a dog is most civilized character?’ But it just showed me that arguing is actually an art and I got very interested in it.”  

They are both grateful for what they’ve gotten out of being in speech and debate, encouraging younger students to give it a try if they are interested.  

Morrison there can be a lot of stigmas around the academic sport, but being able to speak in front of others and talk about global issues are important skills. There’s also a strong community, with students making lifelong friends and finding a place to belong.  

For Vatti, speech and debate helped with public speaking, being informed and being open-minded.  

“I would definitely tell someone younger who's thinking about it that it’s opened-up this new possibility I never thought would have been a path for me. So, it could do the same for you, too ... And it's helped me grow a lot as a person, not just as a debater,” Vatti said. 

Vatti said speech and debate made her realize that she’d like to pursue a law career.  

Morrison said she isn’t totally sure what career she wants to pursue, but knows she wants to work with the United Nations or work within the realm of global relations and humanitarian efforts.  

As far as colleges, Vatti has had her sights set on going to Stanford ever since she was little. While Morrison has always dreamed of going to University of Oxford in England, she would also be excited to attend Northwestern University in Chicago.  

The school boasted three champions in their categories, including Vatti and Morrison’s team, as well as Layna Astley in Program Oral Interpretation and Fenton Liebe-Cohen in Impromptu Speaking and Extemporaneous Speaking.    

Reporter Taylor Inman may be reached at 758-4440 or [email protected].